Rent Pressure Zones in certain urban areas, and a cap of 4% on rent increases per year were the main tenets of Minister Simon Coveney’s Rent Strategy.

Almost six months on, rents are at an all-time high. So, has the strategy failed?

Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast, Michael Byrne of the Dublin Tenants Association said the introduction of 4% rental caps was an important step.

However, he said the strategy fell down when it came to security of tenure.

"Every human being has the right to a secure home," he said. "Tenants need to feel secure in order to challenge landlords who aren't complying, and when tenants feel vulnerable that they may be evicted, when there's already excessive demand in the rental sector, that means tenants are dis-empowered.

"This was a missed opportunity to bring Ireland into the European norm in terms of having security of tenure for tenants.

"It's well recognised that rental property in Ireland is one of the best performing assets in Europe [...] We need to move beyond this issue of landlords being unhappy and tenants being unhappy and look at the data. We need much more government intervention.

Meanwhile, John Leahy of irishlandlords.com said the rental market simply isn't working.

"We've gone from a position of oversupply to under-supply, and rents rising significantly," he said. "Tenants, we understand that they're not happy getting rent increases, but at the same time, landlords are very unhappy at leaving the market."

Mr Leahy added that landlords leaving the market are increasing the pressure already placed on it.

"There's loads of data to back up the poor position landlords are in."